On the 1 — User Guide

Welcome to On the 1, a drum practice app designed to help you build solid drumming foundations through structured exercises, fill composition, and phrase building.

Reading Drum Notation

If you're new to reading drum notation, here's what you need to know to follow along with the exercises.

The Staff

Drum notation uses a standard 5-line staff, but instead of pitched notes, each line and space represents a different drum or cymbal. The clef at the beginning looks like two vertical lines (the percussion clef) instead of the treble or bass clef you may have seen in melodic music.

Where the Instruments Live

Each instrument has a fixed position on the staff:

   x  x         ← Crash / Ride cymbals (above the staff, x-shaped noteheads)
|--x--x------| ← Hi-Hat (top space, x-shaped notehead)
|-----●------| ← Snare Drum (third line from bottom, regular notehead)
|--●--●------| ← Toms (various lines between snare and kick)
|-----●------| ← Kick Drum (bottom space, regular notehead)
   x             ← Hi-Hat Pedal (below the staff, x-shaped notehead)

Key things to notice:

• x-shaped noteheads = cymbals and hi-hats
• Regular noteheads = drums (snare, kick, toms)
• Stems pointing up = hands (hi-hat, snare, cymbals, toms)
• Stems pointing down = feet (kick drum, hi-hat pedal)

Note Durations

When eighth notes or sixteenth notes appear in groups, their flags connect into horizontal beams — this makes them easier to read at a glance.

Counting

In 4/4 time (the most common), each bar has 4 beats. Counting depends on the subdivision:

• Quarter notes: 1   2   3   4
• Eighth notes: 1   &   2   &   3   &   4   &
• Sixteenth notes: 1 e & a   2 e & a   3 e & a   4 e & a
• Eighth triplets: 1 trip let   2 trip let   3 trip let   4 trip let

Rests

Rests are silences. They take up the same amount of time as their corresponding notes — you just don't play anything. In drum patterns, rests create the space and groove that makes the beat feel right.

The Drum Grid

Below the staff notation, many exercises show a drum grid — a simplified visual representation of the pattern.

• Each row is one instrument (labeled on the left with a colored abbreviation like KK for kick, SN for snare, HH for hi-hat)
• Each column is one subdivision (one rhythmic slot in the pattern)
• A colored dot means "play this drum at this time"
• The instruments are ordered with cymbals at the top and kick at the bottom, just like on the staff

During playback, a green highlight moves across the columns to show the current position in the pattern.

Grid Abbreviations

Browsing Exercises

The Exercises page is your starting point for finding things to practice. No account is required to browse.

Filtering

Use the controls at the top to narrow down the list:

• Search: Type any keyword to filter by name or description
• Type: Choose from Beat, Fill, Rudiment, or Two-Bar Phrase
• Sub-type: When "Beat" is selected, you can further filter by Eighth Note, Sixteenth Note, Quarter Note, or Ride patterns

Each exercise card shows the name, a short description, difficulty rating, and duration. Click any exercise to open its detail page.

Exercise Types

The Beat Player

Every exercise with a playable pattern has a beat player — your main tool for practicing along.

Controls

• Play / Stop: Starts or stops playback. The button turns red while playing.
• Loop: Toggle looping on or off. When on, the pattern repeats continuously until you stop it.
• BPM (tempo): Use the - and + buttons to adjust tempo by 5 BPM at a time, or type a number directly. Range: 40–280 BPM.

Tips for Practice

1. Start slow. Set the BPM well below the target tempo. Get the pattern clean before speeding up.
2. Use the loop. Let the pattern repeat while you play along. Focus on consistency.
3. Watch the grid. The green cursor shows exactly where you are in the pattern. Use it to check your timing.
4. Watch the staff. A red cursor moves across the notation in sync with playback, showing your position on the written music.
5. Gradually increase. Bump the BPM up by 5 once you can play the pattern cleanly at the current tempo.

Sticking Patterns

Rudiment exercises include sticking notation — letters showing which hand plays each note.

• R = Right hand
• L = Left hand
• Lowercase before uppercase = grace note (e.g., lR means a left grace note followed by a right main stroke — this is a flam)

During playback, the left and right indicators light up in time with the beat so you can follow along visually.

Practice Sessions

Practice sessions give you a structured, guided practice routine. (Requires an account.)

Starting a Session

1. Go to Practice from the navigation
2. Set your desired duration (15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, or type a custom value)
3. Review the exercise preview — the app selects exercises based on your history, prioritizing ones you haven't practiced recently
4. Click Start Practice

During a Session

The app presents one exercise at a time with full playback controls. For each exercise:

• Play the beat at your chosen tempo, then adjust as needed
• Mark your progress:
  • For Beats and Two-Bar Phrases: click Mastered or Needs Work
  • For Rudiments and Fills: click Thumbs Up (records your current BPM) or Needs More Work
  • Or click Skip to move on without recording
• The app advances to the next exercise automatically

Ending a Session

You can end a session at any time by clicking End Session. Your progress is saved regardless of how many exercises you completed.

Practice History

View your past sessions from Practice > History. Each session shows the date, duration, how many exercises you completed, and which ones you skipped.

Fill Practice

The fill builder lets you compose custom drum fills and practice them over a base beat. (No account needed to build; account needed to save.)

How Fills Work

A fill composition is a 2-bar pattern:

• Bar 1: The base beat plays in full (your groove)
• Bar 2: The beat starts normally, then the fill takes over for the remaining beats

This mimics how fills work in real music — the groove sets up the fill, and the fill resolves back into the groove on the next loop.

Building a Fill

1. Choose a base beat from the dropdown — this is the groove that plays in bar 1 and the beginning of bar 2
2. Choose a note type (resolution) — this determines the rhythmic grid for your fill:
   • Eighth notes = 2 subdivisions per beat (8 per bar)
   • Sixteenth notes = 4 per beat (16 per bar)
   • Triplets = 3 or 6 per beat
3. Add fill patterns by clicking them from the available list:
   • Each pattern has a name, hit count, and visual preview
   • Patterns snap together in sequence — you can chain multiple patterns
   • A progress bar shows how much of the bar your fill occupies
   • The fill can't exceed one bar
4. Click the x on any pattern chip to remove it, or Clear to start over

Previewing and Playing

Once your fill is valid, a preview appears:

• Staff notation shows the full 2-bar composition
• Drum grid shows exactly what plays and when
• Beat player lets you play and loop the composition

Drum Rotation

When you loop a fill composition:

• Every 5 loops, the drums assigned to the fill patterns change automatically
• This adds variety and forces you to adapt to different voicings
• Click New Drums to manually regenerate drum assignments anytime
• Patterns with fixed drums (like "Up the kit" or "Down the kit") don't rotate — they always use the same drums

Saving Fill Practices

If you're logged in, you can save your compositions:

1. Type a name in the save field (or leave blank for auto-naming)
2. Click Save
3. Find your saved practices in the right sidebar
4. Click any saved practice to reload it

2-Bar Phrase Builder

The phrase builder combines two beat exercises into a single 2-bar phrase that you can practice as one unit. (No account needed to build; account needed to save.)

Building a Phrase

1. Select Beat 1 (this plays in bar 1) from the dropdown
2. Select Beat 2 (this plays in bar 2) from the dropdown
3. The app shows a compatibility score comparing:
   • Resolution (same is best — different resolutions get normalized)
   • Difficulty (similar difficulties make smoother phrases)
   • Bar length
4. A combined preview appears with notation, drum grid, and playback

Saving a Phrase

Click Save to add the phrase to your favorites as a new Two-Bar Phrase exercise. You can give it a custom name or use the auto-generated one (e.g., "Beat A + Beat B").

Sharing

Click Copy Link to get a shareable URL. Anyone with the link can open the same phrase combination — they don't need an account.

Your Progress

Favorites

Heart any exercise to add it to your Favorites for quick access. Your favorites are organized by exercise type.

Mastery

When you mark an exercise as Mastered, the app tracks your mastered difficulty level. This influences which exercises are selected for future practice sessions — the app gradually introduces harder exercises as you progress.

Practice Stats

Your dashboard shows:

• Exercise balance — how many of each type you've practiced vs. the total available
• Stale exercises — exercises you haven't practiced in 7+ days
• Recent sessions — your last 5 practice sessions with completion stats

Keyboard Shortcuts

While using the beat player:

• The Play/Stop button responds to clicks
• The BPM controls can be adjusted with mouse clicks or by typing directly into the input field
• Use Tab to navigate between controls

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Practice

1. Be consistent. Short daily sessions are better than long occasional ones.
2. Use the exercise balance. Don't just play beats — mix in rudiments and fills.
3. Start slow, finish fast. Every exercise can be played at any tempo. Master the pattern slowly before speeding up.
4. Loop fills with the base beat. The 2-bar format (groove + fill) trains you to transition in and out of fills musically.
5. Rotate your fills. The automatic drum rotation in fill practice pushes you to be comfortable on all drums, not just your favorites.
6. Save your favorites. Build a personal library of exercises and fill combinations you want to keep working on.
7. Track your mastery. Marking exercises as mastered isn't just for the app — it helps you see your own progress over time.